Last weekend, I had the honor of being a judge for the “Best Rhubarb Dessert in Lancaster County Baking Competition” at the 34th Annual Rhubarb Festival! This fun and rhubarb crazy event is held every year at Kitchen Kettle Village in Intercourse, Pennsylvania. I featured Kitchen Kettle Village on the blog during my Lancaster County Foodie Adventure. Make sure you go check out all they have to offer! There are many specialty food shops that I love, and their Jam and Relish Kitchen is quite impressive. When they reached out to me about being a judge for their Rhubarb Festival, I couldn’t have been more excited!

The baking competition was held outdoors on their main stage and featured three different categories in which people could enter their delicious treats: Pie, Cake, and Dessert. I was lucky enough to be a judge in the dessert category where we had 20 entries! I will never complain about to much dessert!

Before we started tasting, the judges were asked to choose a dessert that they thought had the best appearance for the “Judges Choice Award”.

Once I casted my vote for the judges choice, it was time to start tasting. For every dessert, I had to give a rating in categories like appearance, taste, presence of rhubarb, etc. I didn’t realize how versatile rhubarb was! We had everything from cupcakes to tarts, Jell-O to bars; there isn’t anything you can’t put rhubarb in. Just look at all of these goodies I got to sample. Some of my favorites were: strawberry rhubarb cupcakes, rhubarb tarts, rhubarb cheesecake, and the rhubarb hand pies.

After the judging is all said and done, and the winners are chosen, all of the desserts are sold to the public to benefit the Lancaster Farmland Trust. What a great way to give back to the community in an area where farming and agriculture is so prevalent.

So how do we end the baking competition at the Rhubarb Festival? With the crowning of the Rhubarb King and Queen of course! Yes, there is a Rhubarb Festival King and Queen!

I can’t wait for the 35th Annual Rhubarb Festival. Who knows….maybe I will bake up some of my own desserts and enter the competition myself!

Hi, I'm Emily! Thanks for visiting my blog. I am a lover of all things edible and love being adventurous in the kitchen. I hope you will stay awhile and check out some delicious recipes and tasty places you are sure to love.